Wed 11 Jun 2025
Archived Mystery Review: F. U. ASHFORD – A Packet of Trouble.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
F. U. ASHFORD – A Packet of Trouble. Robert Hale, UK, hardcover, 1971.
Jake Standish, for a lark, agrees to take a small package, contents unknown, to Innsbruck from England, for a stamp dealer named Gostoli.
There are third parties involved, of course, not all of them on the same side, but all of them with the mysterious contents of the package in mind. And there is a girl, and she is not as innocent as she would have him believe. She is playing some complicated game with him, and he knows it, but he falls in love with her anyway.
This exciting trans-European auto tour is jam-packed with close encounters and narrow escapes. In style, it is most reminiscent of a Manning Coles adventure, crossed with an Eric Ambler, perhaps. There is nothing here that a smoothly sophisticated Helen MacInnes could ever possibly produce.
But while the result is wholly predictable by any standards, and is burbling throughout with complete implausibilities — you guessed it — this is the kind of book that still manages to be a huge amount of fun to read.
And nothing more.
Or less.
Rating: C plus.
June 11th, 2025 at 8:08 pm
I have discovered no information about the author. Unless he/she used pen names, this may be his/her only book. Copies are scarce but findable.
June 13th, 2025 at 6:53 pm
Found only this courtesy of Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV:
Francis Urquhart Ashford (1900-1903) + PACKET OF TROUBLE is the lone entry.
Peculiar is the formatting of the author’s name on the cover with no spaces and a period at the end. To paraphrase Chandler: I’ll ponder this during the long winter nights. Along with all the other unanswerable mystery fiction puzzles.
June 13th, 2025 at 7:02 pm
Thanks, Bill. I haven’t been able to access Al’s CFIV for some time now. (It’s on a computer that is no longer working properly. I’ll have to have the local Geek Squad look at it soon.)
I don’t think the periods in the author’s name mean too much, but maybe they do, and how will we ever know? Peculiar indeed. More questions.
June 13th, 2025 at 9:52 pm
There must have been a dozen of small British thrillers like this issued during this period, some good, some average, most competent but not special.
The auto tour sounds as if he might have been working Douglas Rutherford’s territory or John Welcome’s.